If that's not a thumper.....

[Smithy]

then I don't know what is! My son is a car fanatic; I know children can be such a disappointment. Anyway we went to a Vintage Sports Car Club meeting at Cadwell Park last Sunday. Oh boy what an experience, these guys are so much more using their machines than the average VMCC member (yes I am a VMCC member). A lot of the early cars which were founders of the club are from the 1900s, 10s and 20s and have bloody great big aero engines in. That's right aero as in aeroplane. How about a 12 litre V16 engine? Or a 9 litre V8 engine? The 12 lire Hipano Suiza aero engine puts out over 4000 Nm of torque! To put that into perspective my Enfield which is pretty torquey puts out 41 Nm.

There was one car though that captured my heart and deserves to be a thumper even though it was a V-twin. A 4.2 litre V-twin. Just let that sink in for a while. A 4.2 litre V-twin. It was in a pre-war (one that is not two) 1914 wooden chassis with no front brakes! The guy driving it was thrashing the bollocks off it and it was also road legal. Hellfire.

I'm no good with links and things but if you put Thunderbug car into YouTube you will find it. When you do sit back and watch it and then feel a bit inadequate next time you call your bike a thumper, I did.

Ian

[timbo]

I too, love those big mad aero engined cars 

[CrazyFrog]

Yep, me too.

Does anyone remember 'The Beast' from the 70's? It caused quite a stir at the time. I thought it was hilarious 

https://www.classicdriver.com/en/article/cars/john-dodd-and-merlin-engined-monstrosity-infuriated-rolls-royce

[xbally]

Some car folks are as passionate about their vehicles as we are about our bikes. I am into speed hillclimbing and the VSCC have events on most of the British hills which are great to watch.Also check out the Chateau Impney Hillclimb for such vehicles as the "beast of Turin" and other aero engined monsters.

[Smithy]

I have indeed seen videos of the Chateau Impney hillclimb cars, madness but in a lovely way. I think the 20s was a time of euphoria amongst car makers and special builders. They had survived the Great War and its attendant constant danger and there were surplus aero engines about so why not go for it.

It's lovely to see the same gung-ho spirit still exists today in the club. Classic bike racing could learn a thing or two about racing old stuff from the car boys, they seem less precious about wellying old engines and less interested in correctness and condition and more interested in fit for purpose and thrashability. Also the car park was stacked with interesting old cars in great number, my son was over-awed by seeing two incredibly rare FIAT Dinos (a collaboration between FIAT and Ferrari apparently) side by side and about half a dozen E-types including a 1 of 12 Lightweight version. Go to a BHRC or VMCC meeting and if you're lucky there might be a dozen old bikes there and then hundreds of modern cars. Sad really.

But then I went on a VMCC run the other night and there were 14 people on a variety of bikes ranging from a WD M20 to a 1976 RD250 and I was the youngest person there!

Ian

[Ian]

Thunderbug link